


Dark Dreams

by nuclearmuffins



Series: The Caster's Canticle [7]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Family, Gen, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-18 23:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18127934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuclearmuffins/pseuds/nuclearmuffins
Summary: The night before he heads off to the Conclave, Gabriel Lavellan's daughter has a nightmare.Originally written for a prompt on r/dragonage.





	Dark Dreams

It was deep into the night when Gabriel nudged Eirene awake, stirring with deep annoyance etched in her brow, but her face instantly softened when she saw Emer asleep in her brother's arms. "Emer asked if she could sleep beside you tonight," he explained, carefully setting his daughter down on the ground beside her aunt. "Nightmares."

"Of course," she said, sitting up. "What did she dream about?"

Gabriel sighed as he sat down on the ground beside the two, brushing his white hair out of his eyes. "She wouldn't say. She just told me it was 'something bad', and begged me not to leave tomorrow."

Eirene reached down to stroke her niece's hair. The little girl murmured something in her sleep, and curled tighter beside her. She let the faintest of smiles dance on her lips, before turning back to look at her brother with her typical frown. "You don't really have to go, you know. Lona and Emer need you. You're their father."

He chuckled lightly at her words. "Lona hasn't needed me since she could walk on her own. And I don't want to leave behind Emer, either, but I know you and the Keeper won't let her come to harm."

"You're not the only one in the Clan capable of going. Marsali could go. I could go!"

"I'm the First, lethallan. If anyone should go, it's me."

She opened her mouth to protest, but Gabriel was shaking his head. "It's been settled for weeks now, sister. I've prepared for this. Besides," he said, starting to smile. "I've seen you around shems, and I don't trust you to not fight every single one you meet."

"Dream peacefully, da'len," he whispered in his daughter's ear as he bent down to kiss her head, then he stood up. "'Night, Rini."

Eirene sighed, maybe a little from his use of his old nickname for her, maybe a little from his stalwart refusal to let anyone help him, then drew her blankets up around her and her niece. "Good night, Biel." She felt a little childish, using the name she'd bestowed upon him when she'd been three and unable to pronounce Gabriel, but she indulged herself just this once.

As Gabriel silently walked back to his own bedroll, the discomfort of his lie felt like it was starting to press on his chest. He hadn't told his sister the truth about Emer's dreams. Keeper Deshanna once told him about mages gifted with the ability to see past the present, and though they were rare, Emer's dreams had become a lot stranger since her magic had awakened. And, he feared, truthful.

She had dreamed of disaster, she said. There was fire, burning viciously green in the sky, with men dressed in robes and armour alike lying on the ground, not moving. Smoke in the air, humans, elves, dwarves, Qunari alike all screaming in terror. He couldn't go, she pleaded, not after what she'd seen.

Crawling back into his bedroll, he stared at the sleeping forms of his eldest daughter beside him, and his sister and youngest across the camp. Fear for what lay ahead at the Conclave snaked within him, but if anyone was going to face it, it would be him. There was no way he would ever let his sister or daughters in the way of such danger, nothing he wouldn't protect them from.

He didn't dream that night, but he didn't sleep, either.


End file.
